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Sylvania Zevo LED's

DieselSJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
QC AZ
After playing with various LED tail and turn signal lights and never really being happy with them, I think I have finally found what I am looking for.

All of those multi-led units that are in Ebay and Amazon and superbrightled...they are all crap. I hadn't found any that gave acceptable performance. The last set I tried did have a decent tail light function, but there wasn't enough difference with the brake lamp function.

I saw the Sylvania Zevo in a few stores and decided to give them a try. First bulb replaced was the center mount tail lamp. I was impressed.

The first thing I noticed is the use of the Osram chip. We played with some of those at Rigid and they are a super high quality, high output chip. They are mounted to a large heat sink, which is totally necessary as these things get hot. So they had some good things going for them.

They are designed to illuminate the reflector inside the light, which then illuminates the entire lens. You can see in the pictures and videos below that the entire lens is lit on the Zevo.

I will say these are expensive. Cheapest place by far I have found them is Walmart. They do carry a lifetime warranty.

I replaced the tail/stop, turn, and back up lights last night.

The lights - I purchased red for the tail/stop, amber for the turn, and white for the backup.
20160210_210325_zps06duzrxk.jpg


Here they are compared to the LED's that I was replacing that were in my tail/stop. The black ones were bright, but just not enough difference between the tail and stop function. Plus the tail was just a round circle, not the entire lens (you will see later)-
20160210_210529_zpshyskyzaj.jpg


Here are the emergency flashers. The Zevo are installed on the left in both the tail/stop and the signal buckets. On the right are the other LED in the tail/stop and incandescent in the turn signal. Click on the thumbnail to see the video.


Here are just the brakes. You will notice a big difference between the tail and brake function on the left side, while not so much on the right side. And actually being directly behind the car, the light on the right has even less of a difference. Click the thumbnail to see the video.


And here are the backup lights. The Zevo is a 6000K color temp, so it is a very white light. Output was much better than the incandescent. I can tell you that backing up in a place where there are no lights I can see much better behind me.
20160210_211948_zpswlv2mseh.jpg


So if you are looking to upgrade to LED, these are the way to go.
 
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Very nice review and pics/vids. I've added LED's similar to the black one you have pictured in my reverse lamps... not too impressed really w/mine.

I'll have to see about giving these a try. Can you tell us how much they were per set?
 
Perfect... Thanks!

Now if someone would just make a set of Affordable Quality LED Headlights...

Sylvania has a Zevo line of headlights. They only have round ones at this point. Compared to the Trucklite, they are less expensive (still $200+ each though) and seem to have a better pattern. I'm waiting for a good LED H4 replacement bulb that has the correct focal point to be used in a Hella/Autopal/Cibie housing.
 
I'm waiting for a good LED H4 replacement bulb that has the correct focal point to be used in a Hella/Autopal/Cibie housing.

^ This!! I'm running Cibie H4 Housings w/the wiring upgrade currently and it's the best I've seen in an XJ short of Trucklites or JW Speaker... but I don't want to ditch my $200 worth of upgrades for these. Would be nice to just have a really good LED bulb to use in my current set up.
 
Compared to the Trucklite, they are less expensive (still $200+ each though) and seem to have a better pattern.

I picked up my TruckLites for $350 shipped. Still not cheap, but way better than the $450-500 that most places seem to charge. The output is much better than the H4's that I used to have, granted I never upgraded the harness.

I've heard really good things about these Zevos. I assume you swapped out your flasher relay for these, right? I don't see your lights doing the hyper flash deal.
 
I picked up my TruckLites for $350 shipped. Still not cheap, but way better than the $450-500 that most places seem to charge. The output is much better than the H4's that I used to have, granted I never upgraded the harness.

I've heard really good things about these Zevos. I assume you swapped out your flasher relay for these, right? I don't see your lights doing the hyper flash deal.

I did not change the flasher relay. Yet. I have not yet swapped out the front turn signals so they are still incandescent. I'm waiting for Wallyworld to get more amber 3157's on the shelf.

A co-worker was behind me on the way to work today. He told me that my brake lights were "obnoxiously bright". Win.
 
So I stopped by my local Walmart to see what they had in stock... online price said $14.88 and only showed the Red versions of these... So went by the store and they were priced $19.88. I'm going to look online and see if I can find these (all 3 colors) and get them shipped for the same or better than that price.

I like this mod and think it lends a bit of safety and good looks to the XJ.
 
So I stopped by my local Walmart to see what they had in stock... online price said $14.88 and only showed the Red versions of these... So went by the store and they were priced $19.88. I'm going to look online and see if I can find these (all 3 colors) and get them shipped for the same or better than that price.

I like this mod and think it lends a bit of safety and good looks to the XJ.

I noticed that the white and amber no longer show up on their website. I just blew all of my autozone rewards credits on new bulbs for my SJ.
 
So I stopped by my local Walmart to see what they had in stock... online price said $14.88 and only showed the Red versions of these... So went by the store and they were priced $19.88. I'm going to look online and see if I can find these (all 3 colors) and get them shipped for the same or better than that price.

I like this mod and think it lends a bit of safety and good looks to the XJ.
Show them the add on the site, they will price match.
 
I bought the zevos for my taillights, walmart didn't have the amber or white but those are next to come
 
I saw these in the parts store and remembered your thread. Grabbed a set for reverse and installed them yesterday. Haven't looked at em outside in the dark but in the shop... I wasn't as awed as I thought I'd be. I did manage to install one backwards to discover, after i re-mounted the assembly and it didn't come on. Haha.
Then I managed to burn my fingers messing with the old bulb... leave it to me to complicate something easy.
Here's my indoor pics...
Rt side led
5c0f35d0a936dd1a70ed062a90768969.jpg


Lf side incandescent
4da88fc816438c55956eeba462f411b9.jpg


Best I could do of both...
5c5c577634f652a76cb9d91a093d0e4e.jpg
 
So I found all 3 (white, red & amber) @ my local Azone for a bit more than Walmart prices. But they had all 3 colors and also the 3rd brake light as an LED. Swapped them in & had the reverse/swap over a couple LEDs. All the lights work but my Left side blinker is now more of a flasher... the right side blinker works as it should. Any suggestions as to why my left side blinker flashes so fast with the LED? Haven't checked them out at night, but I'm sure they'll be nice and bright. :)
 
You will need to use an electronic flasher/ relay
 
You will need to use an electronic flasher/ relay

Thanks... I need to get this figured out as I really like the LEDs.

I noticed that when I don't have my parking lights or headlights turned on, the new LED breake/tail lights flash when the OE blinkers are installed now. The Left blinker is flashing like normal and the Right brake/LED flashes with it and visa-versa. If I have my parking lights on or full-on headlights turned on the blinkers work as they should and I don't get the extra flashing (I'd assume because the tail light LEDs are already on).

If I can get the electronic/flasher relay deal figured out I'll install the LED's in the turn signals as well. :)

Now time to do some internet search and see what I can find out.
 
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